Silver with deep grill, its sculptured side panels ending in air scoops ... All cock and balls, it stands alone in the lonely cool before dawn ... An old-school totem to speed and style...

Option 2) Putting the focus on the INSIDE of the car

There are again basically 2 reasons to do that:

the activity inside of the car is more important than what we see outside of the car, or

we already saw the car in its environment before and you now want to get to what's happening in the car.

In both cases, the character watches the outside world through the window and often in thrillers / crime / action movies through binoculars.

The car is then considered as an Interior set. The master scene heading starts therefore with INT.

This is an extract from 8MM, screenplay written by Andrew Kevin Walker.

INT. WELLES' CAR -- NIGHT Welles still watches the house. There's a light on in one of the second floor windows, curtains closed. Welles yawns, shaking his head, trying to stay awake. At the quaint house, a light comes on in the front picture window. Looks like a living room or dining room. The old woman comes to sit at a table. Welles takes binoculars off the front seat... THROUGH BINOCULARS The old woman says something to someone we cannot see.

In above examples the cars were parked. If the car is moving you use the following screenplay format:

INT. CHARLIE'S MINI (MOVING) - NIGHT

INT. MINI (CRUISING) - DAY

INT. MOVING BLACK CAR -- NIGHT

INT. CAR TRAVELLING-- MEPHAM STREET -- DAY

The first 2 examples are from The Italian Job, screenplay written by Donna Powers and Wayne Powers. The last 2 examples are from The Bourne Ultimatum, screenplay written by Tony Gilroy, Scott Z. Burns and George Nolfi.

Option 3) Putting the focus on BOTH inside and outside

We usually first see the car in its environment, then we switch to the occupant(s) of the car and the action taking place in the car.

There are 2 common screenplay formats to show that:

as separate scenes

using an extended scene line

i) As separate scenes

In this case the screnplay format will usually start with EXT. showing the car and follow with INT. to take care of the action inside of the car.

This is an extract from Babel, screenplay written by Guillermo Arriaga.

EXT. DESERT -- DAY The Moroccan police trucks drive down the dusty roads. The landscape is harsh and barren. INT. POLICE TRUCK -- DAY Hassan's wife gives directions. WIFE Make a right here. Alarid, with his hand, signals the driver to follow her directions. Suddenly, in the distance, over the hills, she signals three tiny dots running up a slope. WIFE (CONT'D) That's them. ALARID (To the driver) Stop... The trucks stop and Alarid takes out his binoculars. P.O.V. ALARID'S BINOCULARS -- CONTINUOUS In the distance, we can still see Abdullah, Yussef and Ahmed run across the hills. Abdullah is clearly carrying the rifle.

Side notes on binoculars and POV:

You may have noticed that Guillermo Arriaga (Babel) uses a different screenplay format for the binoculars than Andrew Kevin Walker (8MM) does. First he uses POV (Point Of View) while it was implied in 8MM, and he uses POV as a master scene heading while it was a secondary scene heading in 8MM. It shows once more that there is not one single way to go about screenplay format.

If one of the characters was to speak while watching through his binoculars his name in the dialogue part would be followed by (O.S.), which means OFF SCREEN. Why? because he's at the scene location but not in the camera frame. We would hear him, but not see him, since we see what he sees through his binoculars.

POV is usually followed by BACK TO SCENE or a Master heading.

POV is sometimes considered as a camera direction, so use it with moderation (see screenplay formatting commandment #5 about that).

ii) Focus on BOTH inside and outside - Using an extended scene line

The screenplay format in this case uses INT./EXT. or EXT./INT. depending on whether the scene starts inside or outside the car.

Doing so ties both the INT. and EXT. scenes together as if they intertwined.

INT/EXT. IMPALA/ ELECTRONICS SUPERSTORE/ DOWNTOWN - NIGHT Driver reaches under the seat and pulls out a small handheld scanner. He switches it on, tuning it to the right frequency. Crackling police dispatches are interspersed with the basketball commentary now. POLICE SCANNER ...9 Adam 81, what is your current location?...Repeat, what is your current location?... BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Another unbelievable three pointer from Davis and the Clippers are within five!... Out of the corner of his eye Driver sees two MEN approach. He doesn't react, expecting them. They cut through the fence with bolt cutters and approach the main building. Driver watches them pull on their masks, then one of them takes out a shotgun and blasts the lock to the front door. Instantly the alarm shrills. The only thing Driver does is to turn on his stop watch. BASKETBALL COMMENTARY ...Time out Knicks... The stop watching keeps ticking away, the siren blaring, the commentary continuing, the police scanner crackling. The storefront is hidden in shadow, impossible to tell what's going on inside. Driver looks at his stop watch. Almost three minutes. One of the masked men emerges now, carrying a duffel bag.

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Part 2 - The Chase

Whatascript: Shall we now cut to the chase?

Formatman: Definitely. Now that we have gone through the basics we can go through specific situations, starting with car chases.

There are different ways to write them in terms of screenplay format. Let's go through two of them:

using a series of master scene headings

using secondary scene headings within a scene

i) Writing a chase using master scene headings

In this example from Basic Instinct, written by Joe Eszterhas, the screenplay format uses basically two master scene headings (INT. PORSCHE and EXT. THE STREETS) and keeps switching between them.

We get to see the actions of the main character, Nick Curran, from inside his Porsche. And we follow the chase he has with a Ferrari, which nearly ran him over, from the outside.

INT. THE PORSCHE The Ferrari is up ahead and makes a wild right turn onto a road going up a hillside. He yanks the wheel hard. EXT. THE STEPS The Porsche rockets up the steps -- bouncing high into the air, almost out of control. INT. THE PORSCHE As it crests the steps and gets to the street. Nick GUNS it and it looks like it flies high down the hill-side into blackness. EXT. THE STREET But it lands on more steps -- heading downward -- bucking, almost spinning, it bounces onto the next street. INT. THE PORSCHE Another set of steps leading up he GUNS it, it rockets up, ROARS, bucking -- EXT. THE STREET And lands on the next street. Nick makes a wild right turn onto the street. And the black Ferrari appears from around a curve to the right, heading right for him. INT. THE PORSCHE Nick steps on the GAS and heads head-on for the Ferrari. The Ferrari SCREAMS head-on for him. EXT. THE STREET And at the last moment, in the game of chicken, the Ferrari tries to swerve around him on this narrow road, goes out of control and over the side, turning over and over as it rolls down the hillside.

ii) Writing a chase using secondary scene headings

Another way to write such a scene in terms of screenplay format is to use secondary scene headings within an extended scene line.

Each character or main object in the scene gets to be written as a secondary scene heading. And from time to time a new extended scene line

INT./EXT. MOSCOW STREETS/CARS/FACES -- DAYTHE CAB speeding across A BOULEVARD into an older neighborhood of rising narrow streets and -- TWO MOSCOW POLICE CARS PULLING U-TURNS on the BOULEVARD -- whipping around to give chase and -- THE G-WAGON in full pursuit now and -- BOURNE DRIVING -- up this curving little hill and -- THE TWO MOSCOW POLICE CARS starting to climb and -- KIRILL DRIVING and he's on the hill now -- BOURNE -- bad hand on the wheel -- holding on -- trying to find something in passenger seat -- TUBE SOCKS? THE TWO MOSCOW POLICE CARS splitting up! -- one on Bourne's ass -- the other cutting hard into A SIDE STREET, flanking him and -- BOURNE -- topping the hill -- two choices -- right or left?

Part 3 - How did they write that?

Sounds familiar? you watch a movie and suddenly wonder: how's the screenplay format of that scene?